Hudsonville Invitational Recap

The Scots played two games at Hudsonville this weekend for the 2013 Hudsonville Invitational. In the first game the Scots bolted out to a 9-2 lead into the 5th after scoring in the first 5 innings, 4 quality innings by Dan Zeman and 1 relief inning by Nick Tuori. As Tuori trotted out to take the hill in the 5th a sudden, and very annoying sense of confidence appeared to fill the Hudsonville dugout. As Tuori later recalls it, "it's like pitching to a dugout of softball girls that all hit an awkward level of puberty." Tuori got Jared Blum to flyout but couldnt get a call in the zone and walked 3 straight. He left the game w/ 1.1 IP and was charged w/ 2 ER to move his ERA to 12.72 but he does record hold number one on the year. Sam Vanderwal entered the game after Tuori and didn't record an out and just walked 4 guys. So with the sacks full and a 9-6 game, Trent Foreman came in to try and bandage the wound of the inning. Well, that partially occurred as he only gave up 2 more runs and the Scots took to the 6th a 9-8 lead. In the 6th as happened to Tuori and Vanderwal earlier, Foreman couldn't get a corner called and 2 runs were walked in and the Scots coaching staff including honorary member Chris Clark were livid. Actually all of us on the bench were livid. So in the 7th down 10-9 the Scots rally attempt didnt really happen at all as they went 1-2-3 and so the Hudsonville Eagles defeated the Scots 10-9. Trent Foreman dropped to 0-3 on the year and the Scots fell to 0-4.
               In game 2, the Scots had to move across town to take on the Unity Christian Crusaders in the 3rd place game. The Scots had Keegan Mulvey off a gallant no decision in his first outing on the bump and varsity starter Chris Clark behind the dish. In his JV debut at the plate, Clark drove in the first run of the game and they tacked on another to go up 2-0 after the top of the first. In the bottom half however, Clark dropped the third strike on the first punch out by Mulvey and that runner along with another eventually came around to score. Knotted at 2, the Scots scored 2 more runs with RBIs by Clark in the third inning. After tacking on another run off an RBI by Nate Pinder the Scots led 5-2 into the 4th inning. In the fifth inning, the world started falling apart. Keegan Mulvey relinquished 4 straight hits to the outfield and then Carl Giles in what would be his last managerial move of the afternoon, brought in the righty Nick Adams, who promptly got an out but allowed for 2 runs to score. Then it happened. With two outs, Adams threw an inside fastball and the batter took a hack and it hit him on the arm. Somehow in a way that defies the laws of baseball, this guy was given first base. Well the fire in the always calm Carl Giles was blazing as he tore out of the dugout and wanted to know the answer to the same question everyone else in attendance wanted to know, how did that call happen? Well he dropped one swear word, (bull****) and he got ejected. So the skipper took his belongings and not-so quietly left the complex. This long and annoying delay even got to center fielder Michael Andrusiak who exclaimed, "This is ridiculous can we just play already?" Well after about 10 minutes or so order was restored. The game however became tied as another quality start by Keegan Mulvey was marked with a no decision. In a 5-5 game nobody scored in the 6th or the 7th and we marched into our first extra inning extravaganza of the year. In the 8th, Keegan Mulvey led the Scots off with his third hit of the day. Mulvey would be the eventual winning run as Chris Clark drove him with finishing the day 4-5 w/ 4 RBIs. The Scots were trying to put Chris Clark in the field and Paas behind the dish but Paas jersey was being used by Clark and the only jersey left was bat boy Bryce Mercer's. While interim skipper Josh Lind was trying to figure out how to give Paas Bryce's jersey and all that, I got to partially live out my dream warming up Nick Adams behind the dish. Then they got down to business after the umps declared Paas ineligible for his number wasn't on the lineup card. Up 8-5, Lind was confident Adams had enough in the tank to finish the deal. He did that yielding only one run and the Scots took home third place with an 8-6 win. The Scots will play again tuesday at Jenison for another conference doubleheader.